Posts from the ‘Personal’ Category

It’s been a bit since my last post, and much has been stirring on these feline shores.

I figured it was high time for an update, some semi-humble trumpet blaring, and a timely reminder that your kind contributions last summer have not fallen on blind eyes, deaf ears, or flagging spirits!

If you aren’t dialled in with my facebook feed or have yet to sign up to this blog (it’s a wee button to your right, or wayyyyyyy down on the bottom-left), then you probably missed the slew of glowing reviews for the my middle-grade debut, THE CAT’S MAW.

So, instead of posting a schwack (yes – that’s a technical term) of links, I’m including a brand new version of the trailer with press raves included:

Please post this baby far and wide, and know that this is just the beginning!

USER REVIEWS!

The Cat’s Maw has garnered over 100 reader reviews across all of Amazon, Goodreads.com, Google Play, and more.

In fact, there are over 50 5-star reviews on Amazon worldwide so far (US + UK + Canada + Germany + France) with the book reaching as high as #13 in Young Mysteries on Amazon.ca in December!

B) log into Goodreads, iTunes, B&N, and most other major ebook retailers.

User reviews DO make a difference, my friends, and not just with sales — with enough buzz and kudos, the editorial departments of the major sites turn their eyes towards hidden gems in the vast piles of self-published dreck. With nearly 3 million books released annually vying desperately for your love and attention? Every little bit helps!

FEBRUARY SUPER SALE!!!

After months of crossed fingers, cyber-bribes, and insistent twitter pleading, the editorial department at powerhouse eBook broker Bookbub.com has finally given the thumbs up. YES!

This will be the updated version, with all formatting bugs squishes and every last typo cast into the dark abyss. I’ll be sending out a mail as soon as the deal goes live on Amazon.com/.ca/UK/and more.

Then why not spread the gospel below to the folks in charge! Ask them to carry THE CAT’S MAW — for brave young readers, and feline fans of all ages — available now from INGRAMS, and major book wholesalers!

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Happy New Year, kittens and cats! With 2015 well underway, I find myself shifting gears out of (fiscal) necessity. It happens. The Beast must be fed, and those games and gadgets and goodies aren’t gonna buy themselves, right? Pity.

Most of us don’t have the luxury of making the things we want to make most the time. Instead, our stars tend to align in service of other masters. That’s where the term ‘service work’ comes from — it’s your focus and sweat, in varying measures of servitude. So all you can do is cross your fingers, twiddle your rosaries, and pray for decent pay, benevolent bosses, and a pinch of artistic satisfaction after the dice are rolled. I’ve just been lucky to get a few more sevens than snake-eyes.

Somehow — whilst chiseling away at the narrative marble to carve out screenplays, a book, a few comics (animated and otherwise), and potentially cool stuff that never saw the light of day — I’ve been able to fashion a (nearly) functional balance between passion projects and rewarding contracts. Writing and narrative design. Animation. Interactive stuff. You can even scope some of it here.

And I’m about to start work on another one, helmed by one of my fav’ game industry pals. We first collaborated on a pretty cool Japanese co-produced PS2 launch game. This was easily one of the most rewarding and educational experiences of my professional life; the scope was massive, the timeline tight, and the team endlessly ambitious. 15 years on, and things have come full circle in many ways. Colour me optimistic.

But it doesn’t always work out so smoothly. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that I swore I’d never work on a game contract again.

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I hope your Holy-days find each of you in the midst of loved ones — feasting on all things homemade, gravy-soaked, and likely carbicidal — and looking back fondly on another cycle of us all whirling together around the Sun.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who downshifts into more reflective, contemplative gears upon December’s end. Seems to be par for the cultural course, right? One of the few rituals we all still embrace on some level.And for me? The past 12 months have been unlike any other chunk of calendar to pass in…well…pretty much ever.

WARNING: this will be longpost. Like, TLDR-cubed kinda long. And it may seem a smidgen mid-lifey.

But if you hang in there ’til the end? If you tough it out, you may just find some diamonds in the dross.

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With the Holy-days in full swing, it felt like high time for a wee creative break from all things bookish…you know…at least until the Boxing Day deals kick in.

I’ve been a fan of spoken word pieces for a few years now — good storytelling is good storytelling, and it ain’t useful being a slave to format or genre. But truthfully? I’ve never had to guts to perform one live. Live audiences can be insanely hard to impress, particularly when you have a world champion spitting hot truth in your backyard.

Still, the itch remained.

Yup.

I’ve been quietly nurturing a vid channel for a while now; mostly it’s for short films and animations, trailers, and the odd caffeinated rant, and subscribers seem to dig it. But now, thanks to some solitude, a little tech, WWW image searches, and a pair of mirrored shades..?

It time to get slammy.

There are currently three pieces live. I hope to post a new one monthly throughout 2015. Sure…I won’t be approaching Epic Rap Battle’s turf anytime soon…but, if this thing catches on, I’ll (eagerly) begin taking topic requests. Huzzah.

Peace on Earth, and goodwill to Men…and Women…and furred and feathered friends.

I am full of secrets. It’s true. But there’s one thing about my journey as a storyteller that has never been a mystery:

Twin Peaks was (and is) one of my biggest creative influences. Ever.

You want proof? These things I tell you will be true:

I watched the whole series when it aired. Live. Yes…yes I am dating myself, but this old Owl is not what he seems.

I saw the feature film – the much maligned, yet now overwhelmingly respected slice of suburban horror, Fire Walk With Me (FWWM) – six (6) times in the theatre. At least one of those viewings was sober. Honest.

I’ve since owned every available edition of the pilot, collected series, and film (except for Japanese laserdisc. I know, I know…slacker).

The TWIN PEAKS Entire Mystery BluRay is on my Christmas list. If Santa doesn’t love me, I will steal a player just to see the 90min of delected scenes from FWWM, which I have signed four petitions to help bring to life.

I wrote an award-winning Fringe Festival play in 1996 whose climax paid direct homage to a scene from the film. People gasped in horror. There was weeping, and much gnashing of teeth. I was happy.

David Lynch’s obsession with creating mood and tension and surreal ‘hyper-reality’ states with audio became my own. I did my darnedest to slip some of his tricks into early game work at Electronic Arts. Maybe you should try hunting down one of these…

BROKEN SAINTS, in many ways, was a 10-hr homage to Mark Frost’s serialized storytelling chops, and Lynch’s A/V style. If you think that’s an exaggeration, then you haven’t seen the intro to this.

My new children’s fiction books – THE SHADOWLAND SAGA– are structured like a limited run TV series peppered with quirky characters, absurd humour, a layered mystery, and chilling otherworldly dreamscapes. The first book (The Cat’s Maw) has no fewer than three nods to Peaks dialogue. And yes..there will be a contest.

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But this is only the beginning – just the first in a five-volume children’s contemporary fantasy/mystery/adventure epic – and I need your help to keep this particular ball of cat-loving string rolling.

I’m about to start Book 2 in earnest (title to be revealed early 2015). The plot’s been in stone for some time now, the chapters are outlined, and the prologue is already written*!

But Book 1 in The Shadowland Saga– The Cat’s Maw — needs to leave its firm paw-print in the literary world in order to get more young readers, scary mystery lovers, and feline fanatics clamouring for what comes next.

Here’s what you can do to put some catnip in this old kitty’s bowl:

BUY IT:http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500971650 the print version — complete with the new cover embedded above, more than 20 original illustrations, and an exclusive BOOK 2 sneak-peek – is available now in Amazon’s North American shops, and will be up in European ones early October. Expect the Kindle, iBooks, and other E-versions before Hallowe’en — I’ll be sure to list them all here!.

REVIEW IT: if you really, really want to help Billy and his feline friends? Then write a gushing, heartfelt, and passionate review! You don’t have to buy the book if you can’t afford it. If you make a good case and promise a timely review on multiple sites? Then I will send you a PDF version of the final. That’s right — just commit to posting some kind words on AMAZON, Goodreads, your blog or Tumblr, on Pinterest or on Facebook…heck, even with graffiti. Word of mouth is the single BEST way for people to discover things, and you were all the FIRST to experience this story.

REQUEST IT: Ask your local bookstore, library, or specialty shop to carry The Cat’s Maw. It will appear on major distributor lists (Ingrams, etc) soon, and that’s how the literary gatekeepers find what to buy. The more you ask for it (ANYWHERE in the world), the faster folks can experience the story the way it was meant to experienced…curled up under a thick blanket with a cup of cocoa on a blustery autumn night.

FAN IT: Want to take things a step further? Then get involved! Why not make a fan page if you’re inspired? Or create some original artwork? Or do your own audiobook recording! Wanna hold readings at your school or library, screen the trailer, and have discussion groups? Go for it! Try to solve the mysteries of The Shadowland together…and maybe you’ll be rewarded for your efforts when a contest or two arrives to test you in the future.

And please, please, PLEASE — don’t be shy. If you have ANY questions or comments, feel free to get in touch — that’s what the magic of the Interwebs is for!

FYI: I’ll be following up soon with a beefy article featuring many of the things I discovered were part of the process after the book was written. It’s boggling. Speaking with other self-published authors, I was both surprised and a little dismayed by how unprepared most writers were when it came to having a savvy marketing, promotional, and press strategy in place for their books by the time launch week came around. So maybe, just maybe, you can learn from our mistakes ;-)

More soon from the Shadowland, dear friends — thanks in advance for anything you can do to help.

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Thanks in great part to your pom-pom waving and flashflood of generosity, my first children’s fiction novel — The Cat’s Maw– is complete. It’s in the final stage of layout approvals, and I’m taking care to tweak for optimal print and eBook display whilst squashing any lingering typo bugs. (If you’re a reviewer, and simply can’t wait until the galleys are ready, then feel free to ping me for a ‘99.5% final’ PDF.)

As a debuting indie author every day is a school day, so I’m passing on seven of the tastiest morsels of knowledge gleaned thus far (some bits most certainly culled from the Journals of Duh).

At the very least, you won’t be in utter darkness after your stab at NaNoWriMo this November :D

DIGITAL NOMAD, YO (You can write anywhere)

It’s a brave new world, my friends.

You don’t need a penthouse office. You don’t a need a big-screen, quantum-powered desktop. You don’t a suburban castle with moat filled with craft brew and a 2.3 car garage.

You…can…write…anywhere.

I’m all about ‘setting’ when it comes to getting into the scribing mood, so I needed somewhere special – and specifically feline – to tackle the first volume in The Shadowland Saga. And since ancient Egypt was a little outside the budget, a remote corner of Southeast Asia proved the next best base of operations. $500/month for a bungalow, a scooter, and three tasty squares a day? Sign me up, slappy.

But this wasn’t just any old fiscally responsible nook — this was a remote jungle island teeming with CATS – a tiny Muslim fishing community with no natural predators (even the cobras fear kitty here!) and a respect for all things fierce and four-footed.

May I say it again: have WIFI, will travel…and you can too!

GIVING AWAY THE COW (Free reads = free advertising)

In April of this year, I began teasing chapters from an early edit of the book on WATTPAD – considered the social network for writers and readers of all ages. Billing the tale as the opening shot in a ‘contemporary fantasy-adventure epic’, I posted the first 6 chapters and crossed my fingers for a response…

Two months later, I was asked to feature the story in its entirety. In less that 8 weeks, the response has been astounding: chapter reads have topped 140K, along with a tsunami of ‘Likes’, shares, reading-list adds, and passionate comments and questions from an engaged and faithful audience.

Am I worried that posting content for free will dilute book sales come November? Not so much, considering that this exercise has helped to build great early buzz between readers of my genre. Not to mention the fact that the official eBook and print versions will have exclusive content that’ll get the hardcore faithful twitching like a dignified kitty after catnip tea. ;)

It really is a brilliant time for aspiring authors to chart a course and steer their own damn ships.

COMING SOON (Book Trailers are a thing)

It’s seems illogical – how can you cut a promo with audio and compelling visuals for a work that’s meant to exist solely in a reader’s mind? Still, in recent years, it seems that book trailers have progressed from a rarity to the norm in mainstream publishing. The goal is to sell the feeling of the story in a bite-sized chunk of AV goodness to a literary audience.

The Cat’s Maw is a dark feline fairytale with fantasy, mystery, and adventure elements for brave young readers – think ‘middle grade’ (9-12yrs) — and for all you creepy kids at heart.

It was conceived and designed to set stage for the mysterious saga to come by teasing a major piece of its mythology puzzle — trust me, once you’ve read Book I, you’ll see exactly how potent this bit of promo is. :-)

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Hey, blog-friends! I just realized that the last post was over a month ago, so it’s high time to send a ping from this quiet corner of the globe. We’ll keep the vast swaths of text to a minimum this time, and go oldschool, bullet-point, link-o-rama on your eyeholes:

the PUBSLUSH crowdfunding campaign for Book 2 in The Shadowland Saga just hit its trigger minimum with 3 days left! Big thanks to the generous folks who chipped in the kitty (heh). Oh, and you’ve still got time to help out, snarf exclusives, and support children’s literacy while you’re at it :)

Finishing up a hush-hush ‘adult’ novella that might make you blush a shade…or fifty. Pen-name in full effect on this one, but it won’t be Marquis De Sade-style torture to sleuth it out…

Annnnd…with illustrations beginning to pop-up for the first book’s interior, I’ve bitten the proverbial bullet and joined the ranks of PINTEREST weirdness. Just getting the hang o’ things, but expect to see stuff from cult flicks and TV, comics, books…oh…and kitties!!! :D

In a stalky mood? I lurk ‘n’ post near-daily on Crackbook and Twitter — also getting a wee bit GIF-happy (with admittedly emo short-story and poetry snippets) on Tumblr. Don’t be a (virtual) stranger!

Rumblings of ‘movement’ on a genre script that’s been in dev for a while. Perhaps a director announcement soon…?

With another COMICON in the (funny) books, I couldn’t help but have some YouTubeflashbacks.

All for now, folks. Hope you’re having suitably brilliant and beautiful summers, no matter where on Earth the sun may find you.

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(by Brooke Burgess) With a personal ‘patronage drive’ around my birthday, the funding for Book 1 in the new children’s fantasy series — The Shadowland Saga — was raised in less than 10 DAYS! Now, it’s time to sound the call beyond my walls and reach out to lovers of literature, classic children’s stories, and…CATS! Enter PUBSLUSH — the ‘Kickstarter’ for books:

Easy SHARING to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and all your social media!

At the very least, please take a few minutes to check out the campaign page. It’s got fresh content — project background, an interview, even a live chapter sample! — and, by clicking ‘I’M INTERESTED!’, you help build buzz on their main hub for the project.

And…for all of you who sent such generous and supportive gifts my way already?